Various forms of hair cutting aids, tools and devices have been devised over the years, particularly for facilitating home or domestic use by an inexperienced person or one unskilled in the profession of barbering, so as to enable the hair to be cut at proper lengths without nicks and gouged places where the hair has been cut to a shorter length.
The patent literature dates back to at least 1876 wherein U.S. Pat. No. 181,904 was issued on a form of gauge for hair cutting. Other hair cutting or gauge devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,040,711, 1,132,699, 1,286,823, 1,853,828, 2,325,246, 2,678,047, 2,562,421, 2,510,943 and 5,012,830. These devices generally comprise a scissors-like device having one or more comb structures on the ends thereof so as to enable lengths of hair to be extended for cutting. Some of these devices, including the earliest one noted above, namely U.S. Pat. No. 181,904, show mechanisms for allowing adjustment of the stroke or length of hair to be cut. One particularly interesting patent is U.S. Pat. No. 1,286,823 which shows an adjustable pivot point for allowing the stroke length of a pair of combs in a scissors-type arrangement to be adjusted. Unfortunately, the foregoing devices are relatively complex, cumbersome to use, awkward to adjust, are complex to manufacture, and the like.